Wednesday Review

Two posts in one day.... a miracle ....for that you get:

Two reviews (same movie) for the price of one.

In 1963 Madame x was sixteen years old. She saw this movie on a date with her ‘then’ boyfriend (the football hero). She had no idea Hollywood was sending her a ‘message’ in the movie. Trust this, Madame x’s mother drilled into her, the consequences of ‘pre-marital sex’ and the horrors of back alley abortions! She didn't need Hollywood for such things. So for young mademoiselle x it was just a MOVIE, a made up story, an unreal look into another life …. It didn’t go any further than that.

This is what the sixteen year old (Mx) got out of ‘Love with the Proper Stranger’.

A pretty young thing with an overbearing family, somehow manages the ultimate act of defiance and has a ‘one night stand’ resulting in (unwanted) pregnancy with a hunky wannabe jazz musician named Rocky. They are all of Italian heritage living smack in the middle of Manhattan.

Rocky (Steve McQueen) is really quite appealing in a sweet, protective sarcastic way. He looks very hot in his trench coat and skinny tie

And Angie (Natalie Wood) is really quite appealing in a feisty, vulnerable doe eyed way. She looks stunning in her little black dress and chocker length pearls.

To Mx it was a simple solution. They needed to get on the bus and get out of that dirty, noisy, crowded, scary city and move to an abode that didn’t require hiking three flights of stairs with a fire escape for a backyard. Rocky tries to do the right thing by offering marriage, Angie thinks she should do the right thing by marrying the dufus grocery store owner who professes desperate love for her (played by Tom Bosley).

WHAT? ??

Marry Tom Bosley or......... marry the King of Cool? Hmmmmm… Let us think about that……


FORTY – FIVE years later

It is 2008 and Madame x is no longer sixteen. She is watching this movie in a delirious state on her death bed, every breath a death rattle, being force fed a poisonous death concoction called ‘Nyquil’. In the next room is her husband (the former football hero) brewing up more poisonous creations and oblivious to the fact that he is about to succumb to the very same ebola virus Madame x has barely survived.

This is what a no longer sixteen year old Madame x got out of ‘Love with a Proper Stranger’…. (we already know the story line, we’ll just move in for the kill).

1. The black and white ‘film noir’ feel, adds to the grittyness of Angie’s situation. The acting is really very good. In fact, Natalie Wood got an academy award nomination for her part. But alas, Patricia Neal won for a movie called ‘HUD’. Didn’t see that one.

2. But Wow, has Manhattan changed in the last forty-five or what? In real life, it is all cleaned up, and friendly like, with trees and cute little store front neighborhoods and police on horses.

3. Unwanted pregnancy would be the least of your worries in having unprotected sex with a stranger… The stranger could be a disease carrying serial killer…for either party. Hollywood can drive that message home any day of the week.

4. In confused delerium, Madame x wants to tell Angie it is okay to go with the ‘King of Cool’. Tom Bosley will go on to ‘Happier Days’ as Howard Cunningham.

5. Last, a Nyquil saturated brain landed on this thought.....That baby would be forty-four years old with the very real possibility of Angie and Rocky being GREAT grandparents.

The King of Cool…. A great grandpa. Hmmmm…. Let us think about THAT!



Madame x gives this movie ….. a definite rating